


ANBU at Work

by Hokuto



Series: (Nice Dream): The Gaps In Between [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Action, Comrades in Arms, Female Character In Command, Gen, Minor Character(s), Minor Violence, Secrets, Trans Character, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-03
Updated: 2011-01-03
Packaged: 2017-10-14 09:44:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hokuto/pseuds/Hokuto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An ANBU team gets an extra member just before a mission - and no one is quite happy with the results.  Takes place shortly after "Recruitment."</p>
            </blockquote>





	ANBU at Work

**Author's Note:**

> This side-story is dedicated to my faithful and amazingly patient beta, [Irae Nicole](http://iraenicole.livejournal.com), who puts up with my endless whining about action scenes and plots, and helps make these stories good. ♥

Hanako scowled down at the new team roster she'd gotten this morning. Damnit, she'd finally gotten used to a three-person squad, and _now_ they gave her a new person that they'd all have to adjust around? She flipped to their profile; not even a medical nin like she'd been requesting, an explosives specialist with a minor talent for summoning birds. Great.

She stalked down the hall and passed by Murasaki and Uzuki talking; she waved at them, but they didn't even look up, which only worsened her mood. True, she'd never exactly been best friends with either of them - she'd gone out drinking with Murasaki and her friend Mitarashi a couple of times, and worked with Uzuki once, that was all - but ever since they'd gotten assigned to work with that creepy Itachi kid it seemed like they had no time for anyone else in ANBU.

Hanako had other things to worry about. She grabbed her mask out of her locker, left the ANBU headquarters, and headed for the training field where her team usually met.

Momo and Ran had beaten her there; Momo was doing stretches while Ran checked his nails and said, "About time, Captain - can we finally get going on this mission?"

"Not just yet," Hanako said, and held up the new member's profile. "We've got one more to wait on, sorry."

"Oooh!" Ran said, grabbing for the profile. "Oh, please tell me it's another man, I'm so tired of playing straight for grabby old ladies -"

Momo leaned over and snatched the paperwork out from under Ran's shiny blue nails. "Looks like you're out of luck," she said, scanning the profile herself. "Miyu, sixteen, female, specializes in - what the hell, no medic again?"

"No," said Hanako, sighing. Her squad's specialties practically required a medical nin, but getting assigned one was almost impossible these days, and only four or five teams had one on permanent duty.

"And at the last minute, too," Ran said, going back to his nails. "That's going to play hell with our plans..."

"Excuse me, I appear to be late," a girl's voice said, and Miyu herself appeared out of the forest. Her face was hidden by an ANBU mask with a bird design, but the height and hair matched the profile. The profile hadn't mentioned that Miyu was exceptionally well-developed, though, and behind her own mask, Hanako burned with envy. Maybe she ought to get enhancements, like Chie had...

"Nah, we're just terminally early," Momo said, and tipped her mask up to smile at the new member. "Nice to meet you, Miyu - welcome to Team Hana."

"Oh," Miyu said, looking around at the three of them, "I thought that this was Team Fruits."

Momo looked taken aback; Hanako suppressed the urge to snap at Miyu and said, "All right, that's it for introductions, then. Momo, Ran, you know what we're doing this time; Miyu, have you been briefed, or do you need me to go over the mission with you?"

"Oh, no," said Miyu, and a shiver ran down Hanako's spine at the strangely flat tone of her voice, "I don't need to be briefed by a flat-chested tr-"

"Miyu-chaaaaaaan," Ran sang, draping an arm over the girl's shoulder, and as usual Hanako was mildly amazed at how intimidating a five-foot man with blue nails and purple streaks in his hair could be. "Why don't you travel with me, and I can tell you all about the words we don't use with each other, even affectionately."

"That's all right, I didn't mean it affec-"

"I think that's an excellent idea, Ran," Hanako said, fighting down the taste of bile in her throat. "Miyu, in a unit like ours, it's especially important to work together with as little friction as possible, and for team cohesion certain language is off-limits. We'll see you two at the rendezvous point."

Ran saluted, and disappeared with Miyu.

Hanako took a deep breath and felt Momo bump her shoulder. "Don't let her get to you, okay?" the other woman said. "She's probably just one of those Root brats everyone's getting stuck with lately, you know how they are - raised by wolves, the lot of them."

"I'm fine," Hanako said, taking another deep breath. She could deal with the words - she had for years - but it was always unpleasant, and whether Miyu was from Root or not, there was something off-putting about her. "Let's hit the road before we get any more unprofessional, all right?"

"You got it, Captain," said Momo, smiling; she pulled her mask back down and they set off.

* * *

  
It was a four-day trip to the Land of Water, which gave Hanako and Momo plenty of time to plan their approach to Kirigakure, and even more time to worry about whether Ran and Miyu would survive each other's company, though eventually Hanako had to admit that if anyone could put up with an ill-mannered girl like Miyu, it was probably Ran. He liked to complain, but he had the highest tolerance for stupidity of any of them.

They spent an additional night camped outside of Kirigakure, going through outfits and dying each other's hair: dark blue for Momo, a natural red wash for Hanako. Kiri's prejudices against bloodline limits made it unlikely that they'd run into any equivalent of Konoha's sharingan or byakugan, but for up-close-and-personal missions like theirs, genjutsu were too easy to spot and impractical. Dye was safer.

Momo went in first the next day, just ahead of a merchant's caravan, and got waved through quickly. Hanako waited for the caravan to be inspected, then casually stepped up. The guards gave her a quick look-over, and the taller of the two said, "All right, what's your business?"

"Pleasure," said Hanako, and smiled slowly.

The guard raised his eyebrows, but said, "Uh-huh - papers?"

Hanako flipped open the passport that identified her as Fujiwara Sayuri from the Land of Waves, licensed entertainer, and leaned forward slightly so the guard could get a good look.

"Right, then," the guard said, his eyes flicking down and then back up to the passport, "keep left once you're through the gate and you'll find the area you want - anywhere you shouldn't be is marked off, so pay attention to the signs and you'll be fine."

"Thank you so very much," Hanako said, smiling again. "I do hope to see you again - soon..."

She took a little time to get a feel for Kirigakure's civilian areas, noting landmarks, possible escape routes, and sake stalls that didn't look too sleazy. At one point she saw Momo going into a bath house with a crowd of giggling young women and smiled to herself; Momo's primary task for this mission was to stay out of trouble so she could get Hanako and Ran out if they needed it, and Hanako didn't see any harm in her having some fun on the side.

After Hanako had gotten her bearings, it didn't take her long to find the bar where they had planned to meet. Ran had managed to beat her there, though it took her a moment to pick him out; he'd gotten rid of the streaks in his hair and styled it to stick up straight. She didn't see Miyu with him, a bad sign, but she couldn't spot anyone in the room paying an unusual amount of attention to him, either, so she went ahead and took a seat at the bar two stools away from him.

Three drinks and some casual flirting with her neighbor to the left later, Hanako looked in Ran's direction and made a shocked face. "Excuse me, please," she said to her neighbor, "I just saw an old friend..." She waved to get Ran's attention and called out, "Mamoru! Hey, Mamoru, it's me!"

Ran looked up from his drink and feigned surprise. "Sayuri! It's been ages - what're you doing here?"

Hanako squeezed her way over to him and said, "I heard that business was good around here... But where's your sister? You two are usually inseparable."

"Oh, you know Saya," Ran said, taking a drink, "she just had to get out and explore for herself!"

Hanako laughed and said, "Sounds like Saya, all right," thinking that she would strangle Ran and Miyu both if she got the chance. Just what they needed, a team member running around on their own in Kirigakure doing who knows what and getting people's suspicions up... The minute they got back to Konoha she was going to have it out with whatever idiot had assigned Miyu to them at the last minute.

She chatted with Ran for another couple of minutes, exchanging mundane bits of invented history and a few tired old jokes, then said, "Well, I can't spend all my time sharing old stories, but it's been great catching up... We ought to meet up again some time while we're both here."

"Oh, absolutely," Ran agreed. "Saya'd love to see you again!"

"Mmm, I'm sure," said Hanako; she ran her eye over the crowd in the bar, estimating how many were checking her and Ran out, and raising her voice a little she said, "Maybe we ought to do a show or two together - for old times' sake?"

Ran smiled slowly and ran a finger around the edge of his glass. "Definitely," he said.

It was dawn by the time Ran slipped into the cheap room Hanako had rented, and Hanako was tempted to send him back out and debrief him sometime when she wasn't exhausted. Laziness; she rubbed her eyes and turned on the small radio she'd brought to cover their conversation, and asked, "Any problems?" Ran was a good sensor, he'd have a better chance of picking out eavesdroppers than she did.

He shook his head. "Nope, we're clear."

"Good," she said, "because I don't want anyone hearing me ask you why the hell Saya isn't with you!"

"Sayuri, you _have_ met her," Ran said, holding his hands up defensively. "I hate to say it, but even four days with my charming self couldn't help - if I'd brought her in with me we'd have all of Kiri down on us five minutes after she opened her mouth, and that'd be _before_ she said anything that gave us away. Don't worry, she's hiding outside the village with a short-range radio and orders to get out with our reports if anything happens to us."

Hanako relaxed a little and said, "All right - that's not a bad plan. But find a way to warn me next time, it scared the hell out of me when I saw you were the only one there. Any real data yet?"

"Not much beyond what we already knew," said Ran, taking a seat on the floor. "The Mizukage doesn't get out and socialize much -" Hanako hadn't been expecting him to; anyone with the ambition and intelligence to become a Kage usually had sufficient paranoia to stay out of the entertainment districts of a hidden village. "- and he's got plenty of guards. Can't blame him for it, even as a new face I heard a fair bit of grumbling about him."

"That fits with what I've picked up so far," Hanako said. "There are still bad feelings from that graduation exam, and his decision to side with Kumogakure against Konoha and Suna isn't popular... I heard in passing that even the Swordsmen aren't happy, but I don't have any details on that yet."

Ran stared off into space, resting his chin on his hands, and said, "If the Swordsmen aren't happy, we could -"

He yawned in the middle of the next word, and Hanako said, "We can, but after we've gotten some rest - keep Saya informed and we'll check with each other again in two days. Got it?"

"Duly noted, Sayuri," Ran said, trying to grin around another yawn, and he left.

* * *

  
The next few days were uneventful. Hanako crossed paths with Ran once or twice, but for the most part they went after different sources of information; not that Hanako was having much luck, and she doubted Ran's was any better. The Kiri nin were a close-mouthed lot. However subtle she was, she could get little more out of them than she had on the first night, and certainly not much useful; she dutifully included every scrap of gossip in her reports, but included a note with one that said she thought a long-term undercover team might have more luck.

On the fifth night, she was out drinking with a pair of jounin when she glanced up at the roofs and missed a step, stumbling into Mei. She couldn't possibly have just seen Miyu's bird mask up on the roofs, could she? Miyu was supposed to be outside Kiri, not sneaking around in the village.

Mei took her arm and said, "Don't tell me you're already drunk, Sayuri-chan! I really wanted to take you to Mika-mama's, it's such a fun place..."

"No, no, I'm fine, I just tripped," Hanako said, tacking on a giggle and looking over at Jirou to see if he'd noticed anything. He seemed to have been distracted by a busty woman calling to passers-by outside a bathhouse, but Hanako kept her guard up. When the three of them reached Mika-mama's she faked stumbling again and put a hand to her mouth as if she were going to be sick. "Oh - 'scuse me, Mei-chan, Jirou, I think I - sorry!" she said, and dashed away before they could stop her.

As soon as she was out of sight she jumped up to the roofs. She had no idea what Miyu was up to, but when in doubt she always assumed the worst; she started running for the Mizukage's tower, hoping desperately that she'd been wrong.

She caught up to Miyu two roofs later and cut off the girl's path to the tower. "What do you think you're doing here?" she whispered, glancing around for signs of anyone else on the rooftops.

"Carrying out my mission, Captain," said Miyu.

"Your mission is to stay the hell out of Kiri and send reports, not try to sneak into the Mizukage's tower!"

"Oh, I wasn't clear," Miyu said. "I meant that I'm carrying out my mission for Root."

Hanako was unarmed; there was no place to conceal a weapon from a thorough enough inspection, so she didn't bother with them when she was out on the town, but right now she really wished she had bothered anyway. She didn't like Miyu's tone at all. "Whatever it is you're doing for Root," she said, "you're under my command on this mission, and that means -"

Miyu's kunai slid into Hanako's side almost painlessly.

"- you follow _my_ orders, not -" Hanako said, and then she staggered back a step, her hand going to her side. Shit, that little monster... "What are you -"

"My orders from Danzo-sama take precedence, Captain," Miyu said, another kunai in hand. "I was told to let you live if possible, but if you try to stop me, I'll have to kill you."

Hanako took a shallow breath and wrapped her fingers around the kunai in her side, thankful that it didn't seem to have hit anything immediately vital. She couldn't let Miyu near the Mizukage, not without knowing what Root was planning, but how the hell was she going to stop the girl without -

"Looks like a busy night up here," a harsh male voice said, and a tall shadow rose behind Miyu, a smaller one at its side. "And I don't remember inviting any Konoha ANBU along..."

Miyu reacted instantly, turning and striking at the tall shadow's throat, but the shadow dodged and Hanako saw his face outlined by the moon. Her heart sank; this was just what they needed, one of the Seven Swordsmen catching them on the roofs.

"Zabuza-san, please allow me to take care of this inconvenience," said the smaller shadow, as Miyu sprang back and pulled out a scroll.

Zabuza reached for the hilt of his sword and said, "Nah, this won't take long."

Miyu snapped the scroll open and was biting her thumb when Hanako's fingers hit the pressure points in her neck. She collapsed onto Hanako's arm as the sword came down and Hanako blocked it with the bloody kunai she had just yanked out of her side - shit, that sword was heavy; it was cutting into the kunai, and her arms were already starting to shake trying to keep it off and support Miyu at the same time.

She shifted Miyu onto her shoulder and broke away from Zabuza, dropping the half-broken kunai; her hands flickered through seals as fast as she could form them, and for an instant Zabuza's head snapped to the side, following the illusion.

An instant was long enough. Hanako ran, twisting to avoid whatever it was Zabuza's ally had just thrown after her; she felt something graze her leg, but it didn't stick and a moment later she was gone.

She spent five minutes dodging around the roofs, and then it didn't matter whether she'd lost the two Kiri nin or not because the edges of her vision were getting dark and blurry. She circled back to her cheap room, almost put her foot wrong on the tiles, and dived through the window before anything else could happen, throwing an alarm seal on it.

Hanako dumped Miyu on the floor and and dug her pack out from under the bed. She'd packed light, but she was pretty sure she'd put in a roll of gauze - yeah, there it was, under her spare mask. She wadded it up and stuck it to her side, then tied it in place with one of her scarves; she thought, with grim amusement, that a medic could do a better job, but if she'd been assigned a medic instead of a Root brat in the first place she wouldn't have been stabbed at all...

She pulled out a scroll and opened it up. Summoning had never been her strong point, but at least she had plenty of blood for it. She swiped her bloody fingers across the seals and a large green dragonfly with the Konoha symbol patterned in its wings appeared. "Hey, boss!" it chirped. "What's up?"

"Find Ran and tell him to get out tonight, as soon as he can without rousing suspicion," Hanako said. "Then find Momo, tell her to wait a couple of days and then leave, too, unless it looks like she's been discovered - got all that?"

"No problem, boss," the dragonfly said, and it darted out the window.

Hanako took a second just to breathe, then started sorting through her pack again. No time to rinse out the hair-dye; she wrapped another scarf around her hair, slipped her mask over her face, and said, "Don't even think about sneaking out, I set an alarm on the window."

She heard Miyu pause long enough for the sound of fighting to become audible through the glass. "My mission -"

"The hell with your mission," said Hanako. Hadn't she packed _any_ painkillers? Damnit. She wrapped a strip of gauze around the graze on her leg and shoved everything back in the pack except the weapons. "We're compromised, we're getting out, and if Danzo complains tell him I'm the one to blame. Hope you didn't leave anything you're attached to at your camp, because we don't have time to go and get it."

"I've never been attached to anything," Miyu said.

That sounded creepy even by ANBU standards, but no time to worry about it now. "Good," Hanako said, and tossed Miyu a pack of explosive tags. "Let's go."

"Why?"

"I just told you, we've been compromised."

"No," Miyu said, "I mean, why are you helping me? I interfered with your mission and then I stabbed you."

"Like it or not," said Hanako, "and right now I don't like it very much - you're on my team. I bring my team home, whatever it takes. And at least you didn't kill me."

"Danzo-sama ordered me not to kill you unless it was necessary."

"Then remind me to thank Danzo when we get back," Hanako said. She slung her pack onto her back and took the seal off the window. "You first, and keep an eye out for any more of the Swordsmen."

Lucky for them, all the action was going on at the Mizukage's tower. Hanako hesitated just a moment - whatever was happening, it was probably something Konoha could use - but then went straight for the walls. If Momo's cover didn't get blown she'd find out as much as she could, that would have to be good enough.

The guards on the walls were minimal, and Miyu was behaving, a nice change; Hanako was just waiting for things to blow up, but after one tense moment where she had to use another illusion to distract an especially alert guard, they were out of Kirigakure.

Hanako almost fell over once they were in the forest, but Miyu caught her. This was going to be a fun trip back... At least she was alive, which she always counted as a success. As they leaped through the trees, Hanako decided that when they got back, she was definitely going to have a talk with someone - but not whoever had assigned Miyu to her team.

When she got back, she really needed to talk to Murasaki and Uzuki.


End file.
